| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart: somebody else spoke up; it was a woman. She said, `I warned
them, but they thought I would be afraid.'"
"A woman! Did you wait to see who it was?"
"I wasn't spying, Miss Innes," Warner said with dignity. "But
the next thing caught my attention. She said, `I knew there was
something wrong from the start. A man isn't well one day, and
dead the next, without some reason.' I thought she was speaking
of Thomas."
"And you don't know who it was!" I exclaimed. "Warner, you had
the key to this whole occurrence in your hands, and did not use
it!"
The Circular Staircase |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: the word of the LORD.
CH1 15:16 And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their
brethren to be the singers with instruments of musick, psalteries and
harps and cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy.
CH1 15:17 So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his
brethren, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their
brethren, Ethan the son of Kushaiah;
CH1 15:18 And with them their brethren of the second degree, Zechariah,
Ben, and Jaaziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, Eliab, and
Benaiah, and Maaseiah, and Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and Mikneiah, and
Obededom, and Jeiel, the porters.
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Under the Red Robe by Stanley Weyman: 'Mademoiselle, then?' I muttered.
'Is Madame!' she cried. 'Yes, and I am Mademoiselle de
Cocheforet. And in that character, and in all others, I beg from
this moment to close our acquaintance, sir. When we meet again
--if we ever do meet, which God forbid!' she went on, her eyes
sparkling--'do not presume to speak to me, or I will have you
flogged by the grooms. And do not stain our roof by sleeping
under it again. You may lie to-night in the inn. It shall not
be said that Cocheforet,' she continued proudly, 'returned even
treachery with inhospitality; and I will give orders to that end.
But to-morrow begone back to your master, like the whipped cur
|
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: us, she prevented the French Emperor, Napoleon III, from recognizing the
Southern Confederacy. We shall come to this in its turn. Our Civil War
set up in England a huge vibration, subjected England to a searching test
of herself. Nothing describes this better than a letter of Henry Ward
Beecher's, written during the War, after his return from addressing the
people of England.
"My own feelings and judgment underwent a great change while I was in
England... I was chilled and shocked at the coldness towards the North
which I everywhere met, and the sympathetic prejudices in favor of the
South. And yet everybody was alike condemning slavery and praising
liberty!"
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